Friday, September 01, 2017

Meet the Team: Sarah

I started
working in the shop in January, legally took ownership at the end of May and
was handed the keys to the shop in an official ceremony on 24th
June.

What's your
favourite genre of books and why?

I like a bit
of everything, ranging from crime fiction to autobiographies. I really enjoy books that make me think and
those that introduce me to places or information that I haven’t previously encountered.

Name your
favourite book.

I’m going to
have to stick with the common theme from all of the team – it’s

impossible to
choose just one! I absolutely love
Khaled Hosseini’s books; The Kite Runner is most well known but A Thousand Splendid
Suns and And the Mountains Echoed are brilliant as well.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is a phenomenal piece of literature and has the ability to transport the reader to
an entirely different place and time. Michael
J. Fox’s autobiography - Lucky Man: A Memoir moved me to tears; although it
has been years since I read it, his strength of character still resonates. When I’m looking for something lighter, I’m a
huge fan of crime fiction with Lee Child and John Grisham being two authors that
I regularly go back to.

What's your
favourite thing about working at Mostly Books?

Absolutely
everything! I have spent a lot of my
career working in offices so having the freedom to run my own my business in
such gorgeous surroundings is a complete privilege. Every day I learn more about the book trade
and how to keep the business running smoothly.
I’m lucky to have a great team to work with who make each day so much
fun and it’s lovely to chat to all of our customers, both regulars and visitors
alike. The best part is that I get to be
surrounded by books all day, every day.
It’s an absolute dream come true and I can’t quite believe that this is
my job!

What are
your main responsibilities at Mostly Books?

In addition
to recommending and selling books to our customers, I spend a lot of my time on
back office activities. I make the final
choice on stock selection and am responsible for maintaining relationships with
publisher reps and wholesalers. I
largely manage the events that we run (although the team are becoming more involved as time progresses) and
liaise with the publishers to secure authors for those events. All
aspects of running the business are my responsibility including finance (e.g.
invoices, staff payments etc), system maintenance and writing the weekly
newsletter. No two days are the same and
it’s up to me to make sure that everything works!

What
upcoming books are you most excited about?

This is
going to Hurt by Adam Kay is going to be amazing. I’ve had a sneak preview and
can highly recommend it - I can’t wait to hear people’s reactions to it. The new Dan Brown, Origin, should be a fun
Christmas read too.

What do you
like to do in your free time?

I don’t have
a lot of free time at the moment but, when I do have a minute to myself, I try
to keep fit by running, swimming and doing yoga. I’m a massive foodie and love eating out as
well as enjoying delicious food at home.
I love going to the cinema and enjoy any type of live event, be it a
music concert, sports event or theatre.

Tell us
something that the Mostly Books customers don't know about you.

I’m a huge
fan of travel and really enjoy exploring different parts of the world. I have been lucky enough to do two extended
backpacking trips, one when I first left University where I explored India and
South East Asia and, more recently, when I went across to South America and
continued my exploration of Asia. The
second trip took place during 2014 / 15 and I blogged throughout the
travels. If you’re interested in reading
about it, my blog can be found here.

Thanks Sarah,
it's been good to chat!

Sarah is usually
in the shop on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday & Saturday.